Deblocking of interacting particle assemblies: from pinning to jamming

TL;DR

This paper reviews the phenomena of deblocking transitions in interacting particle systems, focusing on depinning and jamming, and compares their underlying mechanisms and observed behaviors.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of depinning and jamming phenomena in particle assemblies, highlighting similarities and differences across various systems.

Findings

Depinning involves external quenched disorder or internal constraints.

Jamming occurs in glassy materials and deforming crystals.

Phenomenology varies between elastic, plastic depinning, and jamming.

Abstract

A wide variety of interacting particle assemblies driven by an external force are characterized by a transition between a blocked and a moving phase. The origin of this deblocking transition can be traced back to the presence of either external quenched disorder, or of internal constraints. The first case belongs to the realm of the depinning transition, which, for example, is relevant for flux-lines in type II superconductors and other elastic systems moving in a random medium. The second case is usually included within the so-called jamming scenario observed, for instance, in many glassy materials as well as in plastically deforming crystals. Here we review some aspects of the rich phenomenology observed in interacting particle models. In particular, we discuss front depinning, observed when particles are injected inside a random medium from the boundary, elastic and plastic depinning in particle assemblies driven by external forces, and the rheology of systems close to the jamming transition. We emphasize similarities and differences in these phenomena.